Valentine’s Day- Love Day & the Pursuit of Baby.

So, it was like any other day, well except this particular day I woke up with a plethora of emotions. I was missing my husband terribly and today was the day we would be “knocked up”, PUPO (Pregnant until proven otherwise), PASP (Pregnant and Staying Pregnant), and all the other clever phrases to describe getting pregnant-yep, that was this day! This day felt different though than the other transfer days. I felt more at ease, more peaceful, or it could have been I was too emotionally drained to put too much thought into it, either way, it felt good not to be as anxious as I typically would be. With my LulaRoe stork leggings on and my “lucky” socks both given to me from awesome friends who have been so incredibly supportive, I was ready to get the show on the road. My previous two transfer were quite uneventful, but this transfer was a bit different from the start. I had a new embryologist come in the room to discuss the embryos that were thawed, as per usual. However, the look on her face and the way she said “we need to talk” petrified me. I immediately gasped and said “oh goodness, please don’t tell me something went wrong the thawing process”. She then proceeded to tell me that she just wanted to give me a pep talk, due to the fact that this was our third transfer and typically, patients get a bit doubtful (understandably so) after continued tries. She went on to say that she had a really good feeling about this one, and although we had a great number of embryos to begin with (13), there’s also a downside to having so many, as not all will be normal and it sometimes takes a while to find the healthy ones. As she continued on with her pep talk, in which consisted of having faith and remain hopeful, I couldn’t help but to tear up. It wasn’t solely her words giving me the chills, it was the fact I felt like I was more than a patient, she took the time to encourage me in a way she had no idea I needed. The courage to get back up after falling so hard, to try again for something so precious, while saying to yourself “how much more can I take?” was what I was feeling as I sat in the room prior to her entering and her talk gave me the extra push I needed to truly believe again. The actual procedure started out per usual, nurse locates my uterus with the ultrasound wand, while specialist inserts the speculum and catheter into my uterus. The embryologist then came in with our two precious embryos in a long catheter and inserts in into the catheter already inside my uterus (quite intense right?) and might I add, at this point it’s not quite as awkward anymore having the nurse and drs. see your precious lady bits while your laying there praying to God, please let this be it! As always, once the embryos are inserted into my uterus- which by the way, I’m watching this all happen on the ultrasound screen- the embryologist then returns to the lab to inspect the catheter under the microscope, ensuring the embryos are not in the catheter. The embryologist came back in and said there was one embryo still in the catheter. I immediately panicked and my nurse saw the horrified look on my face and said, it’s rare for it to happen, but it does which is why they always double check and that it would not cause any issues. So there I am, still freaked out with legs still wide open, and the speculum still in, bladder full, eyes watering uhh, what a time! The embryologist comes back in with and repeats the process. After another check under the microscope, all was well, and both embryos were where they belonged. Oh what a day right?! I went home and rested and began the long two week wait (the period to where you wait to see if those precious embryos implanted!) well, mine was more like an eight-day wait-woo whoo! To read more of what happened during the two week wait and the results of out third IVF frozen embryo transfer, make sure to read my next blog post! As always, thanks for capturing the journey with us, we appreciate it!